This invention relates to a mechanism for automatically inserting and removing diskettes into and from disk drives from a stack of blank diskettes, commonly known in the industry as an autoloader.
In the software industry, preexisting programs are generally provided to the customer on a diskette that is compatible with the type of disk drives generally used with the type of computer on which the software is designed to run. These diskettes may be 51/4 inch or 8 inch floppy diskettes, or the 31/2 inch hard case diskettes.
To record the software programs on a diskette for sale, the blank diskette must first be formatted. The software is then recorded on the diskette and the recorded software is read back and verified with the master software from which it was recorded to determine if that which was recorded on the diskette agrees with what was intended to have been recorded thereon.
This copy task can be done in a number of different ways. One could simply use a computer of the type for which the software was designed having one or more disk drives. With this system, the copies would be made by manually inserting and removing diskettes as the copies are made. This is very time consuming and expensive since it is a hands on operation. Another way to record the software for sale is to use an automatic diskette loader/unloader under computer control, commonly known as an autoloader. Of these there are several models currently on the market. For example, the Mountain Computer models 3235, 3250, and 3280, and Formaster models 31/2 and 51/4. In each of these (See FIG. 10) there is a disk drive 210 mounted with its mouth opposite diskette 220 on the bottom of a stack of blank diskettes in an input hopper 200 with a carriage 230 that rides on a track 270 under the direction of a system control unit (typically a computer of the type that the software to be duplicated is to run on) to first pluck blank diskette 220 from the bottom of the stack in the input hopper 200 by means of jaws 240. Carriage 230 then delivers diskette 220 to drive 210 and inserts it thereinto and jaws 240 releases it. When the recording/verification process is completed, diskette 220 is again grasped by jaws 240 and carriage 230 is directed by the system control unit to transport diskette 220 to a position directly over either output hopper 1 or 2 (250 or 260) depending on whether the software recording made thereon was verified or not. One output hopper will be designated by the system control unit to accept verified diskettes and the other output hopper will be designated to accept unverified, or reject, diskettes. When carriage 230 is in place above the proper output hopper, jaws 240 are opened and diskette 220 is dropped into the output hopper below. An autoloader of this design is necessarily very large, more than a single side dimension of a diskette in width and more than four times the side dimension of the diskette in depth.
What is needed is more efficient autoloader that can process diskettes more rapidly and more than one diskette at a time. Another advantage would be an autoloader that is more compact in size without being overly complex. The present invention provides an autoloader that achieves both results.